A number of wireless devices have been developed to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile society. Devices such as telephones which were once hard-wired to a single location are now portable. Traditionally, when a customer requested telephone service, the customer was assigned a telephone number that was operable from a fixed location such as the customer's home or office. However, when a wireless customer requests service, the wireless customer is assigned a number which is operable over a large geographic area.
Since wireless service is available virtually throughout the United States, a wireless customer may be operating almost anywhere when a problem initiating or completing a wireless communication occurs. A service provider may find it useful to track the locations of reported problems for purposes of system analysis and system resource allocation. By monitoring the locations of customer problems, a service provider may become aware of developing trends and may be able to take preventive action. For example, the occurrence of a number of problems in close proximity to an antenna or other piece of equipment may indicate an equipment problem.
If a wireless customer provides problem location information to a service provider when the customer reports a problem, the service provider may monitor problem locations. A service provider may store the problem location information along with other problem information such as problem type and problem date and time in a data record such as a trouble tracking ticket. By integrating location information with other problem information, a service provider can analyze different types of problems using location information.
To facilitate problem analysis, a service provider may display the problem locations on a map of a geographic area. The service provider may display all of the problem locations or only those problems which relate to a particular type of problem, for example, dropped calls. By including location information with problem type information, the problem locations for all dropped calls may be displayed on a map of the geographic area. Displaying problem locations on a map of the geographic area helps a user visualize the problem location information.
If a map covers a large geographic area, there may be times when it is useful to focus on a smaller section of the map of the geographic area. For example, if problem activity is rapidly increasing in a section of the geographic area, it may be helpful to view only those problems located in the section of the geographic area where the problem activity is increasing. A user may define a section of the map so that only those problems located within the section are displayed. To display only those problems located within a section of the geographic area requires that the problems located in the section be identified. The identification needs to be performed quickly so that the most current problem location information is displayed.
Accordingly, in the field of geographic coding, there is a need for a quicker method of identifying a data record corresponding to a geographic point which lies within a geographic section of a geographic area. There is also a need for a quicker method of determining whether a geographic point lies within a geographic section of a geographic area.